DAFFODILS. 



IRISH NOTES OF PLANTS WHICH DE 



IT IS STRANGE how such quantities of daffo- 

 dils, now such a fashionable flower, have 

 been naturalized in Ireland, and in the very 



finest forms, which can be traced to Eng- 

 lish soil. Yet everyone knows they are of Italian, 

 Spanish, and south of France introduction, and 

 the only rational way to account for their presence 

 in such quantities, particularly in the south of Ire- 

 land, is that they were brought by the early Chris- 

 tians with the strides of civilization from the East, 

 and later on by the Huguenots, planted in the 

 grass, and always found in greatest quantity near 

 old ruins, abbeys, castles, town towers, etc. 



It is some fifteen years since I first took them in hand 

 to get up stock. My first choice was with a batch of 

 Horsfieldi (Fig. i), to this day one of the finest in cul- 

 tivation. Then followed the collection of Capan in 

 quantity, and later on the white trumpet section, 

 of which Leda is probably the most early, and for 

 market purposes the most plentiful. An engraving of 

 Leda appeared in the Gardener^ s Clivoniclc, June 25, 

 1887. Such fine things in white trumpets as Bishop 

 Mann, Colleen Bawn (Fig. 2), Gladys Hartland, Min- 

 nie Warren, Little Nell and Commodore Nutt have 

 been re-introduced to commerce through the searchings 

 of the writer, and probably yet to be added, Parkinson's 

 true Giant Tortuosus. Indeed, in 1884, at the time of 

 the first daffodil conference, such introductions were 



Fig. 2. Colleen Bawn. 



not known, or believed to be in existence, in England. 

 The White Elephant, at this first gathering of daffo- 

 dil collectors, was the White Nanus, in the posses- 

 sion of Captain Nelson, and the quantity was limited to 



lERVE MORE ATTENTION IN AMERICA. 



one single bulb, while in Ireland Minnie Warren 

 could be counted by the thousand. It was so with Ard- 

 Righ, the best forcing sort in existence, and the earliest 

 (Fig. 3). Then we have Golden Plover, another fine 



Fig. 3. Ard-Righ, or Irish King. 



early sort, when it becomes plentiful enough. Lastly, 

 Rip Van Winkle, or Double Minor (Fig. 4). This may 

 be called chrysanthemiflora, from its resemblance to a 

 yellow form of one of the pompon chrysanthemums. 

 It is neat for cutting and very early. All my bulbs 

 bloom during February and March out-doors, and are 

 nearly past their best when they commence to bloom 

 either in Holland or England. That this may be at- 

 tributed to the humid climate of the south of Ireland 

 is becoming an established fact. Indeed, the bulbs 

 scarcely ever get frozen over, and are in a growing state 

 from the time they make their first rootlets with the 

 autumnal rains, and, to speak in the broadest sense, it 

 is only once in ten years we experience the severity of 

 a Scotch or English winter, and certainly never a Dutch 

 one. The natural consequences are, an early bloom, 

 and afterwards well-ripened bulbs. Market growers for 

 Covent Garden are now aware of this important fact. 

 For instance, Ard-Righ can easily be had in bloom, un- 

 der glass, early in December, not later than the 20th, 

 from bulbs potted in August or September, and our 

 Irish form of telamonius plenus (double Von Sion), 

 treated in a like manner, forces admirably. As regards 

 out-door cultivation, they delight in a westerly as- 



